Obedience to God – Is It Worth It?

Is obeying God worth all the hard work?

A while back I wrote an article on why we must obey God. I reviewed that article today (Do I really have to obey God), and realized that though we Christians must not only obey God but also understand what the benefits of obedience are. Over the past few weeks, I have been reading through the book of Deuteronomy, a book that makes continuous reference to obedience of God and his commands. From this book, I noted a couple of benefits of obedience that I will list below. Enjoy the read!

Blessings from God

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Deuteronomy 28: 1-2 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God” (NLT)

What blessings were these promised to the Israelites? First, there was the blessing of their crops, herds, fields, and most importantly, everything they did. After that, they were promised victory over their enemies, establishment as God’s holy people and prosperity. In short, obedience to God would guarantee blessings in every area of their lives!

Check out this verse…

Deuteronomy 28:6 “Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.” (NLT)

If you are anything like me, any time you hear the word blessing, you are quick to do whatever is required to get that blessing, right? Well, I want to challenge myself and everyone reading this – we want to be blessed in whatever we do and wherever we go, right? Are we, therefore, willing to obey God in the same way with no reservations?

Obedience to God must happen all the time, regardless of the circumstances. It doesn’t matter how hard things are, or how easy it is to disobey and get out of a fix – we must obey God all the time if we expect to receive his blessings. That, my friends, is the hard truth.

The Israelites provide us with a perfect example of this – even after promising to obey God, they didn’t, and as a result, they ended up in exile, away from the promised land that he had set apart for them many years earlier, with no opportunity to experience the blessings he had promised them. How sad!

Obey God in everything you do, and everywhere you go, and his blessings will surely follow you!

Righteousness

Would you obey a God you had never seen, even if you were the only one doing so? Well, Noah did!

Noah was a righteous man who walked with the Lord when everyone around was living life as they pleased. God spoke to him and gave him a very interesting and intriguing instruction – to build an ark for himself, his family and a pair of each living creature – because he intended to destroy the earth! You can imagine being told to build an ark in an area where there was probably no water body large enough to hold it! Would you have built the ark?

God did not take the obedience of Noah lightly, as indicated by the writer of Hebrews in the verse below.

Hebrews 11:7 “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.” (NLT)

Wait – did Noah receive righteousness simply because he obeyed God? Yes, he did. Because he was willing to listen to God’s instructions and do exactly what he said, God now considered him to be ‘right’ in his eyes – no longer unclean and without sin. Isn’t that awesome?

Deuteronomy 6:25 “For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.” (NLT)

The fact that a simple act of obedience can get me right standing with God is just amazing. It doesn’t matter how insignificant or mundane the instruction is, I must obey, because when I do, God is pleased with me and counts me among the righteous!

Obedience is important to God. He wants us to obey him so that we may experience a loving relationship with him and every blessing that results from obedience. God knows that obedience is best for us, which is why he repeatedly reminded the children of Israel to obey him so that everything would go well for them, as indicated in the verses below.

Deuteronomy 6:17-19 “You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the Lord said you would.” (NLT)

Hi, everyone! Thanks again for stopping by and reading this week’s article. What do you think about obedience to God? Is obeying God worth it in the long run? Let me know in the comments section, and don’t forget to share this article with your family and friends. Have a great week!